KO'd on Boxing Day

So Boxing Day was probably one of the most miserable days the Hill household can remember. Both Chris and I came down with a case of either food poisoning or the 24-hour stomach flu. It's bad enough for one of us to get sick, but for both of us to get sick simultaneously is awful.

We couldn't hold down food or water and it was painful to get up off the couch, but those are things a toddler and a baby don't understand. So we did the best we could to entertain, feed and care for them while feeling like we'd been run over by a truck. Z got to enjoy more than his normal share of his "Here Come the 123's" DVD, and now I understand why people call the TV the "electronic babysitter". Things were actually pretty good for Mei-mei, because for once she wasn't being carted all around town when she'd rather be at home napping.

I've never known what "severely dehydrated" felt like until I experienced having a stomach virus, being unable to drink, and having to nurse a baby every 3 hours.  And this is coming from a former marathoner and a rock climber who was senseless enough to go climbing in the desert without bringing along any water.  Thankfully I was able to start drinking a bit of water again late Saturday night and my temporary dehydration doesn't seem to have impacted my ability to nurse.

We both felt quite a bit better on Sunday and were able to take the kids out for a walk to enjoy the sunny day.  I made some shi-fan with sweet potatoes and various pickled veggies, and we were able to eat that for dinner.  So it looks like our bout of sickness was brief, albeit incredibly painful.

I know of parents who refuse to fly on the same flight for fear of being in an accident together, thus leaving their children orphans.  I understand that fear (although I'd guess that it's probably riskier, statistically, for them to ride in a car together), but right now I'm thinking that it's more prudent that we never eat the same food again in order to avoid getting sick at the same time.  If it was food poisoning, that is.  If it was the 24-hour stomach flu that's going around, how in the world did we manage to catch it at exactly the same time?  Couldn't we have at least staggered it by 24 hours??  What are the odds of that happening?  Should we buy a lottery ticket?

Our three babies on Christmas

I posted more Christmas pictures on Flickr.  Click here to see them!

The calm before the storm

The calm before the storm, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Post-Santa, pre-toddler

Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas!!

Going Inside

Going Inside, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Zachary loves to scoot behind the chair (backwards, on his hands and knees) to play with the answering machine or the magazines on the bookshelf. He calls it "going inside". This video also shows why we never get any messages that are left on our home phone.

Some of Z's favorite things

1.  His fire engine, which lights up and has a loud siren.
2.  His sister.  Or at least, whatever toys his sister is playing with.
3.  His dog Li'l Blue.  This is the dog who used to be just "Blue", but has been renamed due to the arrival of Big Blue.  Big Blue is the result of my attempt to find a back-up for Li'l Blue.  The back-up looks just like Blue, but is nearly twice his size.  Oops.  Now I'm back to just keeping my fingers crossed that Z never loses Li'l Blue.
4.  A remote control.  Any remote control.

Game day

4 month feeties

When Z was a baby, Margaret and I made a footprint frame for him.  So in the interest of equity (I don't want Mei-mei to come to me when she's 16 years old, noting that the house is filled with mementos from Z's babyhood while there's no sign of her until she started getting school pictures at age 6), I went to Paint the Town to make a matching frame for Mei-mei.  The picture inside each frame was taken the day the frame was made, and they are both 18 weeks old at the time.  It took about half a dozen tries to get Z's footprints (you can still see where they are smudged) because he kept kicking, curling up his toes, and moving around.  Mei-mei, on the other hand, did her footprints in one try.  She quietly watched me as I painted the bottom of her feet, and then allowed me to press them onto the frame without making the slightest twitch.  Since I have a fair amount of experience with teenage girls and know what is facing me in about 12 years, I will enjoy this phase of calm serenity as much as I can.

pointbaby

I haven't had a chance to update the blog recently, thanks to the variety of illnesses that has been passing through our household.  We've had a cold come through twice and now we are in the midst of the stomach flu.  I will try to catch up once things have settled down a bit around here.

In the meantime, here are some headshots of the latest Point B* baby model.  Do you have a company or product you'd like advertised on the belly of the cutest baby ever?  Our rates are very reasonable.



*Point B is Chris' company

Fingertips

This afternoon we were celebrating Festivus with friends when Z got his finger smashed in a door hinge.  He was very brave and let us hold an ice pack on his hand to keep the swelling down, and after a few songs, cuddles and kisses, he was ready to sing to They Might Be Giants again.  We don't think the finger is broken, but it's very swollen and there's a small cut, and I'm sure the entire thing will be black and blue when he wakes up tomorrow.  He avoids using it (he says, "finger hurt" and holds it out to be kissed), but he can bend it a bit and uses it when he forgets that it hurts.  So it will probably be fine.

The problem is that it's the middle finger on his left hand:  the one he sucks on to comfort himself.  He holds his Blue dog and sucks on his fingers to help himself fall asleep, and it just broke my heart to see him put Blue up to his face, start to put his fingers in his mouth, and pull them out again saying "finger hurt".  He kept trying to put his fingers back in his mouth, but couldn't do it.  The poor sweet boy.  I hope that he's able to fall asleep tonight (he's in his crib singing TMBG songs to himself right now).

Incidentally, TMBG has a song called "Fingertips" that used to be one of my favorites.

Bribery at its best

Today I tried out my new form of bribery in order to make leaving playtime a bit easier.  As I unbuckled Z from his carseat, I said, "Now we're going to go play at Sozo!" "SOZO!  SOZO!!  FUN!!" "Yes, we're going to have fun at Sozo, and when we're done playing, we'll come back to the car and you can have a tangerine while we drive home."  "Gerine gerine?  Gerine gerine car!"  (Bribe set up.)

While I was taking Z's coat off so he could play, I said, "Yay, we get to play at Sozo!  And when we're ready to leave, you'll get a tangerine for the car ride home!" (Bribe reinforced.)

We played at Sozo for a little over an hour.  Z was getting tired and cranky, so I started to get him ready to go.  The gateway bribe:  "Are you ready to go wash your hands?"  "Shi shou!  Shi shou!"  He ran over to the bathroom door, trying to open it.  "First let me put your socks and shoes back on, and then we can wash our hands."

Socks and shoes on and hands freshly washed, I walked him over to the coat rack.  ""Let's put on your coat and then you can hold the tangerine until we get to the car."  I put on his coat, handed him the tangerine, and turned around to get my coat and the diaper bag  (I was wearing Mei-mei in the Babyhawk).  By the time I turned back around, Z had run all the way across the gym to the front door, and was trying to convince the man watching the door to open it for him.  He was showing the man the tangerine, saying, "Outside!  Gerine gerine, car!  Open.  Door.  Gerine gerine car!"  (Bribe deployed.)

I took his hand (after thanking the man for keeping Z inside the gym) and he pulled me to the car, saying, "Gerine gerine car!  Please!  Gerine gerine!  Mama peel!"  I buckled him into his car seat, peeled the tangerine, and gave him a couple segments as I put Mei-mei into her car seat.  Z happily ate his tangerine as we headed home. (Bribe fully executed.  Success!)

This was SO much better than our usual way of leaving Sozo.  Our typical exit generally includes lots of kicking, screaming and flailing on the ground, and often involves carrying the kicker/screamer/flailer out under my arm.  Meanwhile, parents of younger children (or girls) look at us in horror while parents of older children smile at me in commiseration.  As you can imagine, this is not my ideal exit strategy.

I don't know what I'm going to do when tangerines are out of season.

Einen frohen Nikolaustag...

...wünschen wir euch!!

Headshots

I can't claim credit for two of the following photos, but I wanted to post them because I really like them.  I'm not sure if the actual photographers want their full names posted on this blog, so I'll stick to first names for now.  Once they become world-famous photographers, I'll be sure to give them full credit!

The first picture was taken by MaryB at a Christmas gathering we had this morning.  Mary is the amazing founder and organizer of the Mamas with Cameras group.  This morning, a few of us met at Eve's house to share Christmas goodies and do informal family photo shoots for one another (since we mamarazzas so rarely get to be in pictures with our children).  You'll notice, however, that my family shot only includes half of the family.  That's because Chris was at home waiting for Mei-mei to wake up from her nap.  Unfortunately, she didn't wake up until Z and I were already on our way home.

The second picture was taken by me in our bathroom as Chris was getting Sophia ready for her bath.  Looking at the first two pictures side by side, you can see that our genes are pretty much split right down the middle:  Z got my half and Mei-mei got Chris' half.

The third picture was taken by KellieO at the Me Ra Koh workshop in November, where Mei-mei and I were baby/mama models.  There are a ton of wonderful pictures from that day, and I can't pick a favorite.  This is just an example of how great they all are, and I will try to post the whole set soon.

Mama share

I got up to answer my phone during lunch, and when I turned around, this is what I saw. Z had taken apart my sandwich and was licking the jelly off of the bread. He laughed and said, "Mama share!"  I guess that's what I get for answering my phone during lunch.

Compare & Contrast: Hooded sweaters at 17 weeks

A funny thing about these compare & contrast pictures is that I'm not purposefully setting up these comparisons. Apparently I have an inclination to dress my children up in very similar outfits or put them in similar poses at the same ages.

Snowball fight

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Santa 2009

Are both children clean and presentable?  Check.
Sitting (relatively) quietly on or near Santa?  Check.
Not crying?  Check.
Looking at the camera?  Um, no.  But Santa is -- does that count?

And they're not exactly smiling either.  But hey, they aren't screaming, looking terrified, or trying to escape!  We definitely consider this picture a resounding success.

(Click here to see last year's not-quite-as-successful Santa picture.)

SAR

Growing up, we had "SSR" (Sustained Silent Reading) as part of our elementary school curriculum. Being an avid reader, I loved it. I actually got to read whatever I wanted? In school? Without having to hide my book inside of a textbook? Wow.

Well, Z is starting to do his own version of SSR. But since nothing about this child is "silent", his is called SAR: Sustained Audible Reading.

I hope that my children grow up to love reading as much as I do, so I enjoy listening to Z "reading" his books out loud to himself. He can name almost every picture in his word book, and he picks up several new words every day. He likes to help me read his books to him, and I hear him reading them to his stuffed animals (Blue and Mau-mau) as well.

Watching a child learn to speak, especially with the help of a plethora of books, is truly amazing.

Mei-mei: 4 month check-up

The little Miss had her 4-month check-up today!  Everything looks great with her and she's growing right on track.  She's 12 lbs (10-25%), 24.5" long (50-75%), and her head is 41.25cm in circumference (50-75%).  She's almost the exact same size as Z was at 4 months (she's 3.5oz heavier and her head is 1/4cm bigger), but she falls in the higher end of the growth charts than he did because she's a girl.
Mei-mei had to get her next round of vaccines as well, and she was very brave about it.  She screamed when she felt the first poke, then cried angrily at me (she has this very effective "yell-cry") for about 45 seconds before she calmed down.  She fell asleep within minutes of being strapped into her car seat and seemed pretty comfortable for most of the day.

Then came the evening.  Chris was playing basketball so I was on my own to put both kids to bed (normally, I feed Z dinner while Chris gives Mei-mei a bath, and then I nurse Mei-mei and put her to bed while Chris gives Z a bath).  I had everything lined up so that I could get Z started on his dinner, quickly give Mei-mei her bath before Z finished eating, then let him play in his playroom while I nursed Mei-mei and put her to bed.

Of course, Mei-mei was having none of that.  She started whimpering while I was getting Z's dinner ready, and escalated to a full-on scream in less than five minutes.  When I picked her up, she felt warm, so I took her temperature to find that she had a low-grade fever.  When I took off her outfit to get her ready for her bath, I saw that her entire leg was red and inflamed from the shots.  She was screaming in pain, so I gave up on the bath, gave her some infant Tylenol to help with the pain, nursed her, and put her to bed at 5:30 PM (an hour earlier than her usual bedtime).

The entire time I was doing this, Z sat in his high chair (he'd already finished his dinner) and watched.  He waited patiently until I came back downstairs from putting her to bed, and said, "Awww, Mei-mei cry.  Mei-mei boo boo cry."  Then he told me that his toe hurt and he wanted a Band-Aid too (he'd seen the Band-Aid that Mei-mei had on her thigh from the shots).  What a sweet boy.

So we made it through one more round of shots!  Her next round will be at 6 months, and the Dude suggested that we get her the H1N1 vaccine at that point as well.  Otherwise, she looks just great and is a sweet and healthy girl.

Compare & Contrast: 4 months

Well, obviously we're brother and sister.  We have the same rocker!  And we both have green shirts!  Duh.

Look how cute I am, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Pondering life as an almost-4-month old, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

It's that time of year again!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hip hoppy holidays

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving!

Giddyap!, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

The "look", originally uploaded by Wenmei.

A sampling of our list of things to be thankful for today and every day:

• Our beautiful and healthy family
• Loving family who many be far away, but are close to our hearts
  
• A close and supportive group of friends, both near and far
• Our sweet and patient Cowboy
• The opportunity to stay at home with my sweethearts every day, and knowing that I will return to work when the time is right (thank you, Chris)
• Mighty O donuts (Z insisted on adding this one to the list)

Compare & contrast: 4 months

Hanging out in the rocker at ~4 months old

Smile!, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Why, hello there!, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

The Negotiator

Z has a pretty effective way of negotiating. He says what he wants several times, until you repeat it back to him. Then he says, "OK" as if it was your idea and he's just being agreeable. Here are some examples:

Z: Outside, walk. Outside, walk.
Mama: You want to go for a walk outside?
Z: OK!

Z: Jee ho, sing. Jee ho, sing.
Mama: You want to listen to the song, "Jai Ho"?
Z: OK!

Z: O Donts, eat. O Donts, eat.
Mama: You want to eat a donut from Mighty O?
Z: OK!

He tricks me into offering him what he wants every time. Clever little boy.

Must we REALLY do tummy time?

Must we REALLY do tummy time?, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Blue

Blue, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

This is Z's dog Blue. He sleeps with Blue and has started taking him around the house (Blue used to hang out in the crib during the day). I have looked for a replacement in case Blue gets lost, but it appears that this particular style is no longer in production. So a stuffed dog that originally cost about $10 will now cost me over $70. Needless to say, Z does not have a replacement, so I hope he's careful not to lose his Blue!

For our Poopah!

Game day

Game day, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

Z had a little run-in with the sidewalk yesterday, which explains why he looks like he was in a bar fight.

Snack time

Snack time with Jai Ho, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

He really likes that song.

Happy Birthday, Grandma H!

2 year check-up

Today was Z's 2-year check-up with the Dude, and it was pretty uneventful. Now that he's such a big boy he gets to weigh-in by standing on the scale, and his height is measured by standing against the wall. Granted, both methods are a bit less accurate due to the inherent wiggly nature of a 2-year old, but he weighed in at 28 lbs (75th percentile) and measured 34" tall (90th percentile). He doesn't get his head circumference measured anymore; it's just considered "huge".

The Dude gave him the once-over and pronounced him perfect, which was no surprise to me, of course. He's very healthy, he's gaining weight well, he's got the normal bumps and bruises expected on the shins and knees of a toddler, and his language development is great. He was very well-behaved during his exam, sitting quietly on my lap while the Dude listened to his heart and lungs, shined a light into his eyes, and checked his mouth and ears. And he very sweetly said, "Bye-bye Dudah" when the Dude left the room.

Even more impressive was Z's behavior during the next part of the exam: his seasonal flu shot. He didn't even make a peep when the nurse poked his thigh. He just requested to listen to "Jee ho" on my cell phone.

The best part of the check-up was the fact that it was timed very well, and we were able to slip under the radar and get a much-coveted H1N1 vaccine for the boy! The clinic had just received a handful of doses of the spray vaccine that day, and they were only giving them to children between the ages of 2 and 4. Since we were already there for our regular appointment, the Dude sent us to get the vaccine -- free of charge, no line at all. After reading about how parents have been standing in lines for 4+ hours around here (and sometimes still not getting the vaccine), I feel very lucky that we were able to get Z's first dose. We'll have to go back to get him a second dose in a month, but hopefully by then there will be plenty of vaccine and it won't be such a struggle to find.

Now I just have to find a way to get the vaccine myself -- I fall into the high risk category too, since I am the primary caretaker of a child under the age of 6 months. At least the prospect of standing in a long line by myself isn't as daunting as the idea of standing in a long line with a very cranky 2-year old.

I'll end with a moment of extreme cuteness. Today was a sunny day, so I took both children for a walk. I was wearing Mei-mei in the Baby K'tan and I pushed the Phil and Teds while Z walked next to me.  Z stopped walking and just stood in the middle of the sidewalk watching me.

Mama:  Do you want to ride now?

Z:  No.

Mama:  Do you want to keep walking, then?

Z:  No.

Mama:  Well, what would you like to do?

Z (rocking side-to-side):  Dance!

Oh how I love that boy.

Jai-ho and Paci-no

Who, me?

Who, me?, originally uploaded by Wenmei.

I have no idea why you keep finding Cheerios in her cradle.

Sneaky birthday boy

Hey, I've got an idea. I'm going to eat ALL of the raspberries off of the cupcakes. I'll be so sneaky no one will even notice! Jammy, keep an eye out for adults, OK? And if I get caught, well, it's my birthday party after all -- I get to do what I want, right?

Birthday fun, part 1

Wow, birthdays are pretty great. Last year I didn't really appreciate how cool it is to be the birthday boy (I was only one year old, after all). This year, I got to play with a whole bunch of new toys, Daddy came home from work early to play with me, and I even got to have a mini-donut with cinnamon sugar on it from Mighty O (I had no idea that donuts come with toppings)! And it gets even better: tomorrow, I'm having some of my friends over to help me celebrate more! Whoever came up with this "birthday" idea was pretty smart.

Here are some pictures of me on my birthday; I'll add more with my friends later:

1. My new easel, which I'm allowed to color on (unlike the walls, furniture, or Cowboy). It has a chalkboard on one side, a whiteboard on the other, and a roll of paper in the middle that pulls up over either side so I can color or paint on it. I'm not allowed to paint on it until we get something called a "drop cloth" for the floor.
2. My tricycle from Poopah and Grandma Joan. This is the first thing I saw when I woke up on my birthday morning and went to my play room. I opened the door, saw it sitting there, and yelled, "Ride! FUN!!" I scooted it around the living room, and then Mama let me take it outside to try it out. I'm not quite sure how the pedal thing works yet (in fact, I'm a little scared of the pedals) but Mama and Daddy say that I'll figure it out quickly. In the meantime, they can push me around or I can scoot with my feet on the ground.
3. My first train set. It's pretty simple, but I really like to push the engine over the bridge. I don't like to pull the rest of the cars behind the engine as much -- I prefer to park those in the middle of the track while I play with the engine.
4. I got the "2" to go with my "1" train engine from Grandma and Papa Hill. It hooks onto the engine, so now I can push them both around together. I'm going to have the longest, coolest wooden train in the world by the time I'm 35!

I call my new trains "chooch" and I say "peep peep!" while I play with them, because that's what the engine says in my book, "Little Blue Engine".